Liberia commission recommends warlord prosecution

MONROVIA, Liberia 
Liberia's truth and reconciliation commission recommended Thursday that ex-President Charles Taylor and seven other former warlords be prosecuted for crimes against humanity for their alleged roles in the West African country's civil war.

The commission now will submit its recommendations to the country's legislature for consideration. It is not clear when it would start dealing with recommendations contained in the report.

Liberia's back-to-back wars, which lasted from 1989 to 2003, sparked vicious factional fighting that killed an estimated 250,000 and displaced millions. Taylor, who launched the 1989 invasion, is on trial at The Hague, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in neighboring Sierra Leone.

The Liberian commission recommended that he and seven other former warlords be prosecuted for offenses including "human rights violations, violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights laws, war crimes, egregious domestic economic crimes," the report said.

Among those recommended for prosecution was Prince Johnson, a former rebel leader who won a landslide victory in the 2005 postwar election and is now a sitting senator.

He is best known for the gruesome torture of former Liberian President Samuel K. Doe, who died in 1990. Last year Johnson told the truth commission that although it was his forces that captured Doe, others are responsible for his death.

On Thursday, Johnson said that he was covered by a law protecting him and others who had taken part in the war in Liberia from prosecution, and would resist any attempt to prosecute him for war crimes.

"The law was made and passed in 2003 when I was in Nigeria, granting amnesty to all who participated in the war from 1989 to 2003," he said of an act of legislation passed when Taylor was president. "I am sorry they (TRC) did not make their research before writing the report."

The notorious rebel commander Milton Blayi, known as Gen. Butt Naked for charging into battle wearing only boots, has confessed responsibility for 20,000 deaths during the war but was not recommended for prosecution along with nine others because of their admissions.

"They cooperated with the TRC process, admitting to the crimes committed and spoke truthfully before the Commission and expressed remorse for their prior actions during the war," the report said.

The Truth Commission was split over the recommendations with three commissioners, including deputy chairman Dede Dolopea, refusing to sign the final report submitted to the legislature.

One of them, Pearl Brown-Bull said the process of choosing people to be listed for prosecution was biased and not in the interest of reconciliation.

"Why would you be selective to recommend certain people for prosecution and leave others out? We had people who were implementers, we had people who were sympathizers (of the war) and those who supplied the arms," Brown-Bull told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The truth commission report also listed for prosecution Alhaji Kromah and George Boley. They headed two of the main warring fractions: the United Liberation Movement for Democracy and the Liberia Peace Council, respectively.

Liberia's postwar government setup the truth commission, modeled on the one in post-apartheid South Africa, inviting both victims and perpetrators to retell their version of events. But critics have said that the commission is toothless since it cannot send war criminals to jail. Many argue that what is needed is a war crimes court so that those most responsible for atrocities can face real justice.